The Physical Babylonian Empire Lives on!

 Did you know that the Babylonian empire was derived out of the line of Cain?  After the flood judgment of G-d to purify the earth and grant it a new start.  The prophet Noah took his three sons into the protective covering (type of Christ's blood and water washing away of our sins), Shem, Ham, and Japheth were preserved from this judgment but soon they would fall prey to sin of Cain. 

The sin came about when Ham looked upon his father, Noah, when he was naked and drunk.  G-d cursed Ham and his descendants by making them subject to the descendants of Shem and Japheth forever.  The Babylonian empire came out of this line.  So the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent continues.  One of the greatest of Ham's descendants was the “mighty hunter” Nimrod, he built large kingdoms in the land of Shinar, modern day Iraq.  His descendants were the ones who built the tower of Babel, a very proud project that the Lord ended by confusing the languages of the people who were working together to build the greatest structure ever built to reach the heavens.  To learn more read Gen.11. 

Some of the nations that came out of the lineage of Nimrod were the Assyrians, who destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel.  Also the Philistines, whose lords put forth the great giant, Goliath, to destroy Israel during the days of David!  These Philistines were originally from the isles of Troy.

The descendants of Abraham saw the descendants of Troy as the great beast that came out of the Mediterranean Sea.  Notice how this verse in Rev. 13:1 ties these enemies of G-d into the war that leads to the climax of this age, “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.”  Our modern day adversaries look and act very much like the old ones!

The more you study world history and geography, you'll find that G-d's kingdom is about to wage a great battle against all the world empires that ever had power over the nations of the earth.  

Nations like Egypt, Persia (Iran), Gog  & Magog (Russia and/or Turkey), Sheba & Dedan (Saudi Arabia), and of course, Babylon.  These empires represent “the seed of the serpent” and they are oath-bound and very determined to destroy the Seed of the woman. 

In the final battle of this age, the Babylonian empire combines all the empires of “man” and wages a great assault against the nation of Israel.  This is known as the last great battle or “Armageddon”.  In order for our L-rd to destroy Babylon, and He most certainly will, we must get out of her assemblies and her alliances, or we will face her judgments all alone.

We continue this look into the prophets. We look at the first prophets -- Cain & Abel

Eve, seeing that righteous Abel was dead, longs for another righteous son to take his place.  Her yearning and broken heart moved the heart of Yah and the L-rd rewards her with a boy, “Seth” who arrives soon after this gruesome blood-stained scene begins to dissipate. 

Eve, through much pain and sorrow, proclaims the cry of her faith in the Lord's promise by saying, “God has given me another seed”.

We see that the birth of “the Seed” would eventuate in the birth of our L-rd Jesus Christ. This epic event would ultimately reverse the curse and the claim of Cain on the human race. Him we preach warning every man in all diligence. Col. 1:28

This work came through great travail and sorrow revealing that travail and sorrow mark the prophetic call. Why does prove true in the lives of G-d's prophets? 

Simply because the “Seed” progeny is pressed hard against a very sinful and dark world that is operating under a wicked ruler who continually inspires men to choose “death”.  Satan is so effective in using his proven schemes that twist the understanding of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden through a perverted view of G-d's love and grace.  

Satan used his pride and desire for self-governance to twist the revealed will of the Creator – it worked! He continues to intertwine self-governance into every deception that has effectively ruined the lives of men throughout human history. Ecc. 1:8-9

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Notice with me that soon after Cain kills righteous Abel, he who God deemed “righteous” by his faith and love for Him, that the Creator would not allow anyone to kill Cain. 

Doesn't it seems odd that Our creator will not allow anyone to kill unrighteous Cain.  Gen. 4:15 says, 'And the L-rd said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him 'sevenfold'.”  And the L-rd set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.'  

This war is our reality, we must reckon with the fact that the L-rd G-d Almighty has allowed evil to hang around since the beginning of time. G-d's purpose has shown to be His clear desire to openly defeat the Evil One publicly and also to publicly provide salvation to all who would believe His prophets. His long suffering reveals His Love for all men from every tribe and tongue, including those of the line of Cain.

The G-d of our fathers wants all men to win the fight against Satan and Cain's descendants.  The Word of God says in I Tim.2:4, “who desires that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”  

Yet He chooses to use men and women, in every epoch of time, to be His prophets to warn mankind of His righteous judgments.  The verse we just read in I Tim. sets in its context, “in light of this desire of heaven to save men” that men ought to “pray” for kings and rulers in high places.  The war has not changed, just the faces of the wicked and the redeemed.

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Notice how the L-rd dealt with the sins of the first family, our L-rd instructs Cain, seed of Satan, with these words to remind him of His word and law before he sentenced him to judgment, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.  And its desire [is] for you, but you should rule over it."   Our G-d knows the descendants of Cain, the seed of the serpent, will perpetually seek to destroy the righteous seed of Abel.  

These continual attacks attempted by the descendants of Cain in no way discourages our Powerful G-d in raising up another prophet or holy seed to push evil back on the earth.  G-d demonstrates His ultimate power by the birth of a righteous seed.   

The seed of Abel must not operate according to the principals of this world.  And by their very real, personal, and self-denying example; they call men back to G-d.  Our Jehovah wants all mankind to walk in the newness of the life He intended for Adam, a walk of sweet and intimate communion with our Creator, yet mankind, outside of G-d's intervention, will choose “death” over “life” without a divine intrusion into bloodlines of mankind. 

As we continue to observe the hand of G-d in this comparison of the way of Cain and of righteous Abel, we begin to understand more clearly how this holy war was initiated and how it will end.  

Cain is a figurehead of all those who fall away from the goodness of the G-d, some say that Cain was Satan's offspring literally, this may be true, I will not argue that point in this article. 

There continues to be an argument of many scholars today who hold to the understanding that Cain is a product of Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Lucifer, a fallen angel, allured Eve with knowledge by getting her to fall into a wrongful alliance with death (sexual union) that produced Cain, son of death. 

Abel is a product of Adam laying with His wife as noted in Gen. 4:1, “Now the man had relations with wife Eve; and she conceived...”  Some commentators take this verse and divide it differently.  

If you do take the view that Cain was actually Adam and Eve's offspring it still makes sense that men and women are born dead to G-d. If Cain is a product of Eve's disobedience when she allowed Satan to inseminate her righteous womb with a lie, we can better understand why eventually the L-rd destroyed the earth with a flood. Cain's seed would be able to destroy the earth with their violence. 

The Flood of Noah's day was necessary to preserve the earth. 

Gen. 6:2-3, “The sons of G-d saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.”  Then the L-rd said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh;”

The Flood was a picture of an ultimate work of heaven to rectify the injustice on the earth.  Water represents judgment, our personal repentance and associated baptism in water represents our personal death to our rebellious heart.   We rise to newness of life in Him.  The Spirit's baptism represents our preparation to “do” the will of the L-rd.  Fire baptism is necessary to rid our real flesh-filled lives of self-worship, so evident in the life of Cain.  Therefore blood must be shed to save our souls.  

Abel is a type of the death of the perfect lamb of G-d who takes away the sins of the world and Cain is also a type of the shedder of blood, Satan who tempted Eve to take of the forbidden fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, typified in our war with the power of sin within the members of our flesh to destroy ourselves.  Rom. 6:3, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?”

G-d saved Cain's parents by killing an unblemished animal (without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin) revealing from the beginning that there must be bloodshed and there must be a holy sacrifice in order to appease the “just” wrath of Our creator toward the essential sinfulness of mankind.  By clothing them with His righteous blood-stained clothing, Yah prefigures the propitious work that one day His Son would accomplish for all who believe in His Name.  

A side note here.  

Cain never doubted the existence of G-d.  What Cain did before G-d's face is clear.  Cain did not worship G-d with his whole heart unlike his brother righteous Abel.  Does Cain sacrifice or offer back to G-d some of his possessions? Yes, he does, but he did not express his devotion to his Creator and Redeemer in the way prescribed
,  “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.”  Gen. 4:3

Cain gives an offering to the L-rd and Abel also gives an offering to the L-rd.  So what distinguishes Cain's offering from Abel's offering?  The answer lies in a careful reading of Gen.4:4,  “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.  And the Lord respected Abel and his offering.”  Abel gave the unblemished lamb, the firstborn, the best, and all of its contents, including the “fat” of the sacrifice.  “Real” blood was shed and a “real” death occurred when Abel offered his sacrifice to the Lord.  

The Line of Cain – natively sinful man!

The word “Cain” means “man”.  When he was born, Eve said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Gen.4:1  Think about what the word “acquired” means?  Abel was a product of holy love relations between Adam and his precious Eve, while Cain was a product of an act of disobedience 

Cain was a tiller of the ground.  Adam's curse from the Lord was, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken, For dust you are, and to dust you shall return”  Gen. 3:19  

As a man, Cain worked the soil, he was keeper of the dust of the ground, and he was vitally connected to the curse of Adam.  He was in every way the seed of the serpent, just like all of us by nature.  Just as Satan was at one time a great angel in heaven, in charge of all the worship of heaven, and unceremoniously cast out of heaven, so Cain was a great builder and worker of God's earth, he had tremendous power and potential to do well, but never to be a co-heir of eternity as righteous Abel.

Cain hated Abel because he had an amazing destiny with G-d, so satan lusts against the destiny of mankind and uses his tactics of pride and discontent to inspire men to doubt G-d's love for them.  Satan was the greatest worship angel ever made by God, yet it wasn't enough, so also Cain was not totally satisfied with his role as keeper of the ground.  As Cain worshiped the Lord he brought only a part of his labor, not his best and not “all” that he had... therefore he lost out on eternal life.

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Today we live in a spiritual climate of so much spiritual apathy.  Many say that they “love G-d”.  They are familiar with His Word, but they are not giving G-d their best.  They may be great at preaching God's word or managing a church, like Cain they are great at building man-made enterprises, but they are not giving their best to G-d.  They are not giving G-d their “all” and they are not forsaking “all” to follow the L-rd Jesus.

I do not believe for one second that Cain doubted G-d's existence, power, and love.  

But that he held back portions of his life and labor that were to be solely given to the L-rd.  Cain was unwilling to depart from the world of “self” management, or, “his” love for the “cursed” ground that he was bound to return to someday.  Do you believe that Cain could have become a seed of Eve or do you believe that he was bound to be a seed of the serpent?


to be continued